He put down the medical examiner for saying toxicology reports could take 3-5 weeks, and said it should be 30-60 minutes in any ER in the country.
They will be sending her blood for specific drug levels, not just doing the usual ER urine drug screen to which he was referring. I couldn't believe the token doctor on the set didn't bring that up.
I also pointed out that even were they to receive tox reports back in a few days, it would be imprudent to release them before other things, such as final culture and path reports, are also done. So the 3-5 week thing was not unreasonable, except to the vulture media.
I am not a pathologist, I just play one on FR, plus he got me in a snit. Normally I like Mark F.
But having said that, he would be incorrect with his position. While they could easily take a tox screen rather quickly, they are waiting for a gas chromatology report that does take at least a week to know the amount of drugs and exactly what drug was in her system when she died. A tox screen would only determine the type of drug (opiate, Etc.)
I would also say that I think the medical examiner probably already knows what drug was in her system but is not saying publicly for one of two reasons. One would be not to embarrass her family or two, because there is reason to believe it was a homicide and that by keeping that secret only the murderer and the police would know what that drug was.
Based on the way they have trampled all over Smith's privacy from the get go, I'm doubting that it was the first reason.